This was really, really cool. Thanks for posting it!posted by Malor at 7:48 AM on August 13, 2007

Oh my god, yes. I love text adventure and I love, love, love cave maps. With the little dotted lines that lead off to who knows where, they remind me of the incomplete maps of the world from antiquity. HERE BE DRAGONS.posted by zsazsa at 8:05 AM on August 13, 2007

The cave photos with attached room descriptions from the game are awesome. This is great!posted by uncleozzy at 8:07 AM on August 13, 2007

I can feel a new LOLCATS meme coming on. (I can haz mint-cake?)posted by Jofus at 8:14 AM on August 13, 2007

I read this one on the weekend after a link in rec.games.int-fiction, thought about a post, but wondered about audience interest. Turn out - usenet is still cool!

sometimes

Actually, though (mild derail) in many way the older places of the web are better these days. /. is occasionally even readable since the invention of digg. But I digress.

This is particularly good if you're familiar with the semi-mythic history of the game. Turns out Crowther did do interactive gamey bits (not widely known), and I was especially interested to learn he wrote it in part for something for his kids to do subsequent to his divorce. My dad introduced me and my brother to it on a mainframe at the university he worked at in 79(?), after his divorce, for something to keep us occupied. It became something of an infatuation. For years I kept the printout of my first ever successful traversal through collosal cave.

Many moons later, the first compiled code I ever wrote was using inform downloaded from ftp.gmd.de, and the basics I learned from that kept me employed for years. It wasn't the best game ever written, but Andrew Plotkin liked it, which gave me a considerable egoboo.

/dabs happy tear

Here's to ya, Mr Crowther, and also to Mr Woods, the Lennon to your McCartney. Loosely speaking.posted by Sparx at 2:39 PM on August 13, 2007

Hey! THe original source code is there too!

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/crowther/

from the post that I assume started it all at
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.int-fiction/browse_thread/thread/607acaf1a279d4dd/bd53b672a185d177#bd53b672a185d177posted by GuyZero at 7:59 AM on August 14, 2007

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